nor the market of this commodity is large. The value of the article is also a factor in determining the rates. Necessities like lumber, sugar, etc., obtain low rates. Also where there is a strong competition by water routes, the railroads make use of commodity rates in order to gain a reasonable share of the traffic business. Let us suppose that a manufacturer of office desks in St. Paul, wishing to market his wares in St. Louis, discovers that the class rates on his commodity are prohibitive. He succeeds in obtaining a commodity rate between these two points. Shortly afterward, another manufacturer between St. Paul and St. Louis wishes to market his desks at some point below St. Louis. If he has watched the rate schedules carefully, he will have discovered that between his own town and St. Louis commodity rates apply and he will save a considerable amount in freightage if he has this information. But the question of rates is immensely complex. There are more than fifteen hundred railroads in the United States, and each one has its own individual schedule of commodity rates. Some railroads have separate tariffs running into the thousands. There is no complete file of all tariffs, and the individual manufacturer has to keep track of rates applying to his own commodity at the various points where he does business. Freight Tariffs.-Two copies of every freight tariff are placed on file, in accordance with the law, for public inspection at every freight office. Moreover, the railroads are ready to supply shippers with all tariffs applying to their commodity. The tariff-manager should not content himself with obtaining tariffs merely from the place of shipment, for often he can take advantage of commodity rates which apply between other points in part of the territory he wishes to cover, and thus may obtain reductions on portions of his own routes. Freightage Claims.-Every business man who fills orders by freight finds it necessary to make a greater or a less number of claims against railroads for damages, overcharges, and other ills that befall traveling merchandise. The handling of these falls to the traffic-manager, if there is one, and it is one of his duties which calls for the greatest promptness and patience, and the greatest amount of tact in letter writing. The routine of submitting a claim is as follows: A bill is made out against the railroad for the whole sum demanded. This is attached to the freight receipt and sent off with a letter explaining all the facts of the case and forming a basis for the claim. All possible information should be given both at this time and in the event of further inquiries from the claim agent of the railroad. The claimant must be persistent and follow up his claim actively, but he must remember that there are certain reasons for legitimate delay. The railroad has an enormous number of claims to handle. Then, too, every shipment is pretty sure to have passed over more than one railroad, and the claim has to be lodged properly and adjusted by the railroads between themselves. The claim has to be investigated, so to speak, along the whole length of the line. In the claimant office all the correspondence relating to each claim should be filed away together and a summary record of its complete history should be kept. Regulation of Rates and Traffic.-The "Act to Regulate Commerce," which became a law February 4, 1887, and as amended by subsequent legislation, especially in 1908 and 1910, should be in the hands of every shipping clerk and traffic-manager. Important clauses therein relate to the filing of rate schedules on the part of the railroads, unjust discrimination, rebates, hearing of complaints, establishment of routes and rates, and the building of private switches to one's own plant. 4. Shipping by Express.-Much of the complexity of freight shipping is obviated in the quicker, easier, if somewhat more expensive method of express shipping. Some of the strong features of this service are: Collection of parcels, receipts, care in transit, special arrangements for the security of valuable packages, controlling records of the movement of shipments, thus making it possible to trace a shipment and to fix responsibility in case of loss; indemnity for loss and damage without extra payment, quick transportation. Express rates have recently been lowered, and, beginning with February, 1914, a block system of tariffs went into effect. To ship advantageously by express, the traffic-manager must understand the proper classification of the goods and the rates from his location to all other blocks and sub-blocks. When an order-generally a mail order has been investigated and credited, the first detail in the order of shipping is that of routing. Fortunately, the question is for the most part one of speed and conveniencè rather than of difference in cost, for with the adoption of the block system, the charge is made according to actual distance, not distance traveled. If it is necessary that two different companies handle the shipment en route, the charge is still the same, not a combination of charges of two companies. The routing may be done by means of the directories, tariffs, and schedules of rates furnished to shippers by the express companies and Postal and Express Shipping Guide, which contains the name of every post-office in the United States and every express company reaching any given point, or the point nearest thereto. The name of the express company is entered on the order, which falls next to the billing clerk. A shipping order is made out, giving full particulars, in carbon duplicate, of the article to be shipped, with the names of all clerks through whose hands the order has passed. To this a label is attached bearing the name of the express company and the name and address of the customer to whom it is to be sent. The order is entered on the shipping sheets obtained from the express company. Shipping sheet, order, and label are then despatched to the packing and shipping department. When it has served its purpose for checking off the goods, the order is returned to the correspondence files, and the details of the time and manner of shipping are recorded upon it. The express company gives a receipt for all goods |